VW’s U. S. boss faces House panel over emission flap

House subcommittee holds first public hearing on scandal

Volkswagen U. S. CEO Michael Horn on Thursday apologized for the company’s emissions scandal in testimony before a Congressional committee, pledged to fix cars and said three people in Germany have been suspended.

Horn said he believes the company’s American workers did not know about the matter.

He said for the first time that the automaker would fix the 482,000 U. S. diesel cars involved in the scandal, not buy them back from consumers, though he indicated the company is weighing compensating owners in some capacity.

But Horn could not give a timeline for repairs of 430,000 of those vehicles — the oldest models dating back to 2009 that will require hardware changes. The company is still developing a fix for those cars, but it could take years to repair them all due to the complex hardware and software changes that will be required, he said.

Fixes for the rest of the vehicles involved in the scandal could start in early to mid- 2016, Horn said.

Appearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Horn testified under oath that the company would accept “full responsibility” for fitting software on diesel cars that fooled regulators into believing the vehicles were compliant with emissions regulations.

Volkswagen has acknowledged that about 11 million diesel cars worldwide — including 482,000 in the U. S. — were rigged with the so- called defeat device.

He called the situation “deeply troubling” but pushed back against accusations that Volkswagen has a pervasive culture of corruption, saying it does “not reflect the company that I know.”

The cheating has exposed the German automaker to Environmental Protection Agency fines of up to $ 18 billion, a U. S. Justice Department criminal probe, consumer lawsuits and investigations in Europe. The cars are emitting harmful pollutants at rates of up to 40 times acceptable U. S. standards.

Several members of the panel said Congressional committee said the violations reflect a broader problem with the auto industry in the wake of scandals at Toyota, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and supplier Takata.

“The American public are not crash- test dummies and should not be treated as such,” said U. S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D- N. J.

EPA Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn.